MAE Students Receive Prestigious Awards at AIAA SciTech
Two doctoral students from Dr. Paul Davidson’s Laboratory for Advanced Material, Manufacturing, and Analysis (LAMMA) were recognized with prestigious Student Paper Awards at the 2026 AIAA SciTech Conference, held in Orlando, Florida. It is uncommon for multiple students from the same research group to receive Student Paper Awards in the same year, making this recognition a notable achievement for the LAMMA research group.
Sandesh Amgai received the AIAA Harry H. and Lois G. Hilton Student Paper Award in Structures. His research focuses on the structural optimization of additively manufactured aerospace panels with spatially varying thickness. Using a semi-analytical framework and multi-objective optimization, his work demonstrates more than 30% improvement in buckling performance for constant-weight designs, highlighting the potential of additive manufacturing for lightweight, high-performance structural systems.
Oscar Valdez Loya received the AIAA Lockheed Martin Student Paper Award in Structures. His research investigates the combined effects of boundary compliance and progressive damage evolution on the low-velocity impact response of composite laminates. Through experimentally validated numerical modeling, the study demonstrates the importance of accurately representing boundary conditions and damage mechanisms to achieve realistic predictions of impact response and damage morphology.
These awards recognize outstanding student scholarship within the AIAA Structures Technical Community. This work was supported by the University of Texas System STARS program and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
